Epilogue

To wrap things up, below are the stats and map for the final route from Paris, France to Baku, Azerbaijan.

Total days: 149

Riding days: 105

Rainy days: 29

Total distance: 4346 miles

Average pace: 41 miles/day

Languages butchered: 12

# of flat tires: 1 (in Turkey)

# of people who stopped to check on us while fixing said tire: 8

# of times Kat stopped to pet a stray cat: definitely over 100

# of times Kyle contracted Giardia: 1

# of shots of raki/rakia/moonshine taken: too many

Gear broken/replaced:

  • 1 pairs of cranks
  • 3 saddles
  • 1 handlebar bag
  • 2 chains
  • 1 flat tire
  • 2 sets of brake pads
  • 3 bike bells (don’t ask me how)
  • 6 water bottles (we keep forgetting to grab them in the morning)
  • 1 wallet (Kyle dropped it somewhere before the Bulgarian border)

Books read: 10

Most consumed food: Haribo Gold Bears (Kyle ate these almost daily)

Favorite city: Budapest (Kyle), Munich (Kat)

Favorite country: Georgia (Kyle), Serbia (Kat)

Things I learned:

  • The world is a very safe place
  • Most everyone is incredibly kind
  • You can push your body much harder than you think
  • You can mime your way through any conversation
  • Never take directions from a local without a second opinion
  • Any food tastes good after riding 50 miles
  • Good roads make for easier days Bad roads make better memories
  • Playing dumb gets you out of a lot of sticky situations
  • Not everyday is packed with adventure. Some days were straight up boring. Podcasts and music helped immensely
  • The best day in the office is never as good as the worst day cycling
  • If you forgo the rain fly on your tent, it will rain

Thank you to everyone who followed along to our adventure. And a big thank you to my friend Craig who wrote us letters throughout the trip, which were always the highlight of our day.

Until next time,
Kyle & Kat

*Bonus Pics* Our favorite photos from the trip

One thought on “Epilogue

  1. When you’re stretched, you can find out what type of metal you’re made out of by careful measurements that evaluate Young’s modulus.

    The important part in non-destructive materials testing is to not pull past the point of breaking – once you’ve learned sufficient properties of the material, you can let it rest for future tests.

    Also, scientific research indicates a number of alloys of two metals fused together are stronger and more flexible than a single metal. Testing shows an alloy will be stronger and less fatigued than a single metal under cyclic loading.

    After a well conducted scientific experiment it is important to lookback, draw conclusions, and apply learnings from that experiment to the production environment as well as to setup future experiments.

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